Trump declares 'total vindication' in tweet on Comey

For a moment on Thursday, Washington, D.C. and parts of the US sat rapt as Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating alleged Russian ties to Trump's presidential campaign. But the gist of the hearing was that Trump wasn't under investigation for Russian Federation stuff at the time Comey was sacked, which meant we got little out of the proceedings beyond the resurgence of "Lordy" was an expletive.

Comey admitted in his sworn testimony that he had asked a friend to leak notes he kept detailing his meetings with Trump to a reporter.

Kasowitz also maintained that the testimony made clear that Trump "never, in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr. Comey stop investigating anyone".

"Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication", Trump wrote. Trump has been warned by lawyers to watch what he tweets because his comments could be used against him.

"What makes it egregious is the fact - and I think it's obvious that it is a fact - that the attorney general of the United States was adjusting the way the department talked about its business so as to coincide with the way the Clinton campaign talked about that business", Mukasey said on Newsmax TV.

During much of the increasingly heated debate surrounding the FBI's investigation of Russia's role in the election, Trump has chafed over news leaks, arguing that news organizations had not given them proper attention.

Trump was appearing at the White House with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.

Trump spent Thursday morning meeting with his secretary of state, secretary of defence and national security adviser, discussing North Korea, the Persian Gulf region and other matters, said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Karl then asked Trump directly about Comey claiming under oath that the president said to him of the FBI's Michael Flynn investigation, "I hope you can let this go".

"You're going to be very disappointed when you hear the answer, don't worry", the president said. Comey said there would be a duty to correct his statements if Trump became the subject of the probe.

The president had previewed his attacks against Comey in an early-morning tweet that broke his previous day's silence on his favorite social media megaphone. In his testimony, Comey detailed months of distrust of the president and bluntly asserted that Trump had fired him to interfere with the probe of Russia's ties to the Trump campaign.

His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., spent much of Thursday tweeting about Comey: he tweeted more than 80 times by 6:30 p.m., defending his father and blasting the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director.